Less than one per cent of the people living in Greater Manchester have had their say about the region’s biggest health shake-up since the 1940s.

Just 4,305 people out of a population of 2.7m have completed questionnaires about the Healthier Together reforms in what was billed as the region’s biggest ever test of public opinion.

The consultation about the shake-up, which could see up to five specialist super hospitals created in the region, began six weeks ago and is now at its half-way stage.

But market researchers tasked by Healthier Together with assessing the consultation’s progress have told health chiefs the response from the public has been ‘quite reasonable’ so far - despite only 0.15 per cent of the population having completed the forms.

Kester Holmes from Swansea-based consultancy Opinion Research Services told senior doctors at a meeting in Manchester: “It isn’t a referendum. It isn’t a numbers game.

“It’s about evaluating all the evidence and all the arguments together.”

He said there is ‘no magic number’ for consultation responses.

Figures show that just over 900 people had responded in the first week. There were 688 responses in week six.

More than a quarter of those who responded in the first six weeks were aged 45 to 54. Four per cent of respondents were aged 16 to 24 and three per cent were 75 to 84.

The meeting was told only 1,000 consultation booklets were available at the launch, but 200,000 have now been printed.

The meeting was told that sending the questionnaire to every household was ruled out because of the cost.

Health chiefs are looking at producing a new version of the questionnaire on a single page to make it more user friendly.

But one of the four members of the public who were at the meeting told doctors: “Out of 2.7 million people, we think under 5,000 is a good result halfway through? I’m sorry. I think that’s disgraceful.”